Electric home appliances represent an ever-growing percentage of household amenities. In particular, electric version of items such as stoves, microwaves, toasters, and the like dominate the marketplace. The automatic nature of such items makes for easy preparation, maintenance, and accurate heating of food, beverages, and the like. Such electric appliances allow a user to automatically heat the device to specific temperatures, allow a user to time preparation in an automated fashion, and allow a user to perform many other similar tasks in a hands-free, automatic manner.
The shift to automatic food heating and preparation appliances, among other household appliances, has led to an increase in house fire and the like as a result of increased absence of a user during the time of use. Such accidents can easily result if a burner, heater, or other similar component or appliance is left on and unattended for a period of time. Fires may result from gas buildup, overheating, a misplaced item which catches fire, or any number of other mishaps which would potentially be mitigated by the presence and attention of the user.
Various attempts have been made to provide automatic safety features for stoves and the like. Examples of these attempts can be seen by reference to several U.S. patents. U.S. Pat. No. 5,094,259, issued in the name of Hsu, describes an automatic shut-off safety device for gas stoves. The Hsu device detects the extinguishment of a flame on a gas stove and shuts off the flow of gas to prevent a dangerous gas buildup.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,032,663, issued in the name of Pencheon, describes a stove emergency cutoff system. The Pencheon device has a sensor located above a stove's burners which senses the presence of a large flame and shuts off the corresponding burner.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,046,441, issued in the name of Daffron, describes a combustion activated device for disabling an electrical appliance. The Daffron apparatus can sense the presence of a flame on an electrical appliance and subsequently shuts off power to the appliance.
While these devices fulfill their respective, particular objectives, each of these references suffer from one (1) or more of the aforementioned disadvantages. Many such devices are not adaptable to types of stoves such as gas, electric, and the like. Also, many such devices do not sense an adequate range of dangerous conditions and instead only focus on one particular situation. In addition, many such devices are not easily retrofitted to existing appliances. Furthermore, many such devices are not adaptable to a variety of appliances. Finally, many such devices involve physically intrusive components which may be either in the way of a user of the appliance or perceived as aesthetically unpleasing. Accordingly, there exists a need for an emergency shutoff system for cooking appliances without the disadvantages as described above. The development of the present invention substantially departs from the conventional solutions and in doing so fulfills this need.